Dorney Park

Visited: April 20, 2024

Attending: Just Brian

Because I'd maintained my Cedar Fair pass, when Dorney Park opened their new dive coaster, Iron Menace, I got an invitation to a passholder preview day. I reserved a spot for 9:00 Saturday morning, more or less on a whim. I discovered that this event was very different than the one I’d attended for Wildcat’s Revenge at Hershey last year. For one thing, the media day was held in advance of the passholder preview, so most of the folks who I might have hoped to see on preview day had already ridden it. The other major difference was that the park wasn’t open for the season yet. The back section of the park was open, and while that’s not small, it’s not everything. It was also very sparsely attended at 9:00 on a Saturday morning.

Iron Menace

This is the big deal that I was there to ride, and given all the closed paths, that’s where the traffic was directed, so I headed there first. The new orange track really pops against the background of the park. In fact, when you enter the lower parking lot, the inclined loop is right there in your face, so it’s hard to miss. The drop faces the midway, so that’s pretty cool too. The whole lower area of the park is now the “Steel Yard” section, which honors Allentown’s roots as a steel town, we’ve heard it before. They had some music that I can only assume is “industrial” going around the entrance; I wonder if you’ll be able to hear that when it’s not empty. It’s got a pretty nice sign, and I imagine it’ll look pretty good once the grass grows in.

I headed over to the entrance, saw that there was no line at all, but then got sent back down when I discovered we needed to get a paper ticket at a booth by the gift shop, something that nobody had told me and I had no way of knowing. However, that only took a minute and again, there was no line. Seemed kind of odd for the big attraction to be a walk-on. There was one spot in the queue that looked well-decorated. I’ve heard that there’s some good theming to this ride, but if there’s a pre-show or anything like that, I must have bypassed it.

Anyway, given that it was a walk-on, I figured front row was the way to go. I got the second seat from the edge, which was a slightly new experience for me, as I always seem to end up on the edge when I ride solo. It has the usual vest restraints and the grab bars, which I expected, but universally acknowledged to be inferior to the older restraints. The lift rises straight out of the station, and then heads straight forward to the drop. This is the first dive coaster I’ve seen without a 90- or 180-degree turn at the top, so that was unusual. There is a short straight section right before the holding brake, but I only got a bit of time to look around. Given that the ride is at the bottom of the hill Dorney is built on, I had a pretty good view of all the other coasters.

The hang itself was just a few seconds, no big deal at all, but it had the usual effect on the other riders. I noticed there’s something painted on the ground at the lowest point that looks like it’s supposed to be a smelting pit of some kind. If that’s lit up at night, that could look really cool, but during the day, it’s not very impressive. The drop is 95 degrees, which I appreciated. Much like Yukon Striker, I could feel the moment when the road wheels re-engaged with the track. The big drop is followed by a big old Immelmann, which is common on dive coasters, and provided a little bit of air, which was cool. That’s followed by a zero-g roll taken high in the air, which is also pretty cool. You’ve got a good head of speed at that point, so the roll is effective. After that is the inclined loop, which is…pretty dull, to be honest. Because of the incline, there are no positive or negative forces, really. It’s visually impressive, but not while you’re riding. I don’t understand B&M’s fascination with the things. Then a corkscrew, and the brakes. It’s short for a dive coaster, in both height and length, which is kind of disappointing. I’m afraid I’d have to rank it near the bottom of the dive coaster list, and since I’m not much of a fan of those to start with, it’s not a great addition. However, it does look like Cedar Fair’s new dedication to theming is in effect (hope that survives the merger), and riding a newly built coaster is always fun. The brake fins were so shiny!

Since there was literally no line at all, I figured it couldn’t hurt to go ask for a re-ride. I wanted to try it from the back. Alas, my paper ticket was rejected for another go-round, and it looked like they had an operational delay not long after that, so I took some photos and moved on.

Steel Force

Possessed is right next to Iron Menace, but I don’t really like Impulse coasters, so I ignored it. (I have no idea how that’s supposed to fit the theme, anyway.) Steel Force was a short walk across the bridge, and although I would rather have ridden Talon or Hydra, they weren’t open. Not many people were heading for Steel Force, and I briefly thought I’d get a zen ride, but a handful of other people showed up. With a light train, and early in the morning, it wasn’t a particularly intense ride, and I just rode it a few months ago, so nothing really unexpected happened. That helix still pulls a lot of G’s, but sadly the airtime on the hills is kinda lacking.

Thunderhawk

I’ve had some pretty bad rides on Thunderhawk in the past, and I thought about skipping it, but it’s 100 years old this year, and there was literally nothing else to ride, so what the heck. Once again, I almost got a zen ride, but a handful of other folks showed up. I was expecting to get beat up, but surprisingly, the track was pretty smooth, for a 100-year-old woodie. I wonder if they did some work on it over the off-season. Turns out that if it’s not beating you up, Thunderhawk doesn’t do a whole lot. It’s not very long, and the drops are kinda shallow. There isn’t any airtime to be found here. Still, I was pleasantly surprised, so I’ll take that as a win. Having exhausted the available coasters, I decided to take my leave at that point. I was only there an hour, but I think it was time well spent.